Jim Goldstein has produced a survey to study the effectiveness of social media on photography businesses. If you have time I recommend giving some feedback.
2009 Photographer Social Media Survey
If you have any input, please comment here as well, I am interested to hearing how well the social media world is going for you.
Today, I have a special guest post from my wife! Since she has not immersed herself into the photography world from a technical aspect, it is always refreshing to have her fresh perspectives on what I am doing and additionally, her support has been invaluable. So, here is her take on today’s Photo Friday image.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Derrald’s. I like the detail of the bee, from the sharpness of his wings, to the individual fine hairs of his fuzzy body. I think there is an interesting juxtaposition of the sharply-defined bee and the slightly out of focus thistle. It seems the colors in this picture are very vibrant as well. Normally I think of bees as miniature enemy pilots out to sting me, but viewing this picture, somehow I do not feel threatened at all. - Holly Thomas
Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 50 CM lens, f/7.1, 1/100 sec.
Near Cedar Rapids, Nebraska
This photograph can be viewed on my website at: Larger Than Life - Bee and Thistle
Often, travel photographers tend to go to different locations to shoot. The tendency is to grab a few shots of the grand scenics, the locations that are familiar to the masses and then move on. From a commercial perspective, these are probably the shots that sell the most as they are the locations that people remember when visiting a popular location. The saying “familiarity breeds contempt” comes to mind to describe these individuals. There are some photographers, however, that like to explore an area and find images that don’t fall into the “shoot and go” mentality. It is those artists that gain a greater appreciation for a place the longer they visit.
My wife and I have visited the Black Hills and Badlands area in South Dakota three times together. Before that we both traveled there multiple times as children. Indeed, it is a popular destination for people that live in Nebraska as the Badlands is the closest national park. We both have fond memories of this area so it was no surprise that we decided to take our 2 year old on this trip. Each time I return I gain a greater appreciation for the landscape, the wildlife, and the nature of the area and I find myself shooting areas that are not the “popular” locations. Today’s shot, while close to an overlook, is not a popular spot and I found myself hiking a little ways for a new perspective. The weather was very cooperative and gave me some god beams shining down on the ridges in the distance. I saw only one other soul while shooting, and he was photographing a deer (I think). It was a peaceful, serene morning in a place of which I was familiar and appreciate.
Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 29mm, f/11, 1/20 sec., Singh-Ray 3-Stop Hard Grad
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
This photograph can be viewed on my at: Welcome to Wonderland - Badlands National Park, South Dakota
I have recently returned from an adventure west and north to South Dakota and western Nebraska. My very pregnant wife, 2 year old, and I had some fun, saw some stuff, and I was able to do some work as well! Buffalo, pronghorns, big horn sheep, mountain goats were some of the critters we managed to see. In addition, we had a look at some killer prairie dogs - literally. Seems that some of these little guys have the plague. Didn’t realize that one until we saw the signs - “Caution, Prairie Dogs Have Plague! Keep People and Pets in the Vehicle.”
As far as landscapes, we got around to traveling through Badlands National Park, Mt. Rushmore National Monument, Wind Cave National Park, Custer State Park, the Black Hills, Chadron State Park, and Toadstool Geologic Park. Additionally, we happened to stumble upon the only Uranium mine in Nebraska. Once again, didn’t realize that until we saw the radioactive warning signs. Of course, my wife thought I was trying to kill us, or at least make us all very sick. It’s been a few days now and I can report that so far we have no symptoms and we do not glow in the dark.
I tried some new techniques during the trip and over the next couple of weeks I will be sorting photographs and processing and I may upload an image or two from the trip.
Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4tc, f/6.3, 1/640 sec.
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
For the last in the 5 part series, I will demonstrate a variation of the “Orton” technique that I occasionally use. The Orton technique was popularized a few years ago and has gained momentum. Many ethereal modifications to photographs have been using different techniques centered around one goal - giving an image a slight blurry, other-wordly look.
For this image, I loaded the RAW file into Adobe Photoshop and tweaked the temperature, contrast, etc. until I had the image processed to my liking.
I then copied the background layer by right-clicking and selecting “Duplicate” and naming the layer “Blurring Layer”. This new layer will be selected. I then chose “Gaussian Blur” under the “Blur” options and picked a radius of “30″.
Going back to my layers menu, I changed the opacity of this layer until I had the effect for which I was going, on this image it happened to be 51%. For a final touch, I created a curves adjustment to add a little more contrast to the photograph, being liberal with the curve.
To recap:
Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 70-200 f/4l @ 109mm, f/8, 1/500 second
Continuing in the steps of yesterday’s image, I wanted to convert a close-up of the headlight on the tractor to monochrome, but I wanted it to have a bit of a sepia, faded feeling like photographs from another era. Just as before, I loaded the RAW file using Adobe RAW and set my temperature, contrast and other settings close to how I would want the image if I was going to publish it in color. Once again, I used the grayscale option to help me to visualize how the image would like in black and white to help perfect my options.
The Large Conversion
Once I have everything set, I then activate the Nik Silver Efex filter and begin scrolling through my options on the left. About 2/3rds down the page, I find a couple of options for sepia toned images. I think that the Dark Sepia version works the best so I choose that one. It turns out a bit dark, so I use the brightness slider to increase it just a tad. I also up the contrast and structure a little bit from the defaults. While some of the pipes are falling into the darkness a bit, I don’t mind that, but I want to show a bit of detail so I did move the shadows slider up. The highlights slider I left alone.
Adding That Little Extra
Since the tractor consists mainly of reds and white, I choose a green filter which helps lighten the reds and create more a sepia tone across the whites. I didn’t like the effect full on, so I moved the intensity to 64%. Because of the quality of the lenses in the past, many of the old photos have a bit of a vignetting to them. My goal with this is to not make it too noticeable, but give the viewer a bit of a lead in into the photo. I moved the vignetting down to -7 which darkens the corners slightly, but not too noticeably.
To recap:
Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 40mm, f/10, 1/400 second
One of the most obvious processing treatments that can be performed on an image of an old tractor would be to convert it to various types of monochrome. Today’s image was converted to Black and White by using Nik Silver Efex Pro. Black and White conversions can be performed both in-camera and later in processing with tools such as Photoshop, but I have found that Silver Efex Pro gives me more control over how the image is converted with some great visual presets.
When loading the image into Photoshop, I first corrected for color, although I did not spend too much time on making sure that all my casts were gone. If I know I’m converting to black and white, I often use the “Grayscale” feature in the RAW import dialog box to get a rough understanding of what the image will closely resemble.
I then activate the Nik Silver Efex dialog and scroll through the various options on the left side until I find the look that I desire. For the basic settings, I tweak the settings on the right such as brightness, contrast, and structure. Brightness and contrast work the same as those in Photoshop, while structure adds more definition to the lines within the image. Also available, the shadow slider brightens the darker areas while the highlights slider tones done the brightest parts of the image. This can have the perceived effect of lowering the contrast of the image, so I usually keep these two settings at a minimum.
For today’s image, I choose High-Contrast Yellow filter and left the defaults on brightness, contrast, and structure. I increased the brightness in the shadow areas to somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2, but kept the brightness slider at default. If you are not familiar with what colored filters do to black and white photographs I suggest checking out “Using Coloured Filters with Black and White Film” to gain an understanding. From there, I could tone my photograph or add a bit of vignetting. I will discuss both of these options in tomorrow’s edition of the tractor series.
To recap:
Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 17-40 f/4l @ 37mm, f/11, 1/60 second
In yesterday’s post I shot through the prairie grass and focused on the tractor. In today’s image I was still shooting through the grass, but the real objective was to subtlety hint for the real subject. The goal is to force the viewer to first examine the photograph and then look deeper for the intended subject. This creates more interest in the composition since upon first viewing, the subject may appear to be the in focus grass, but then the eye is immediately led to the bright headlight and then to the form of the tractor.
For this result, I kept the depth of field intentionally shallow at f/6.3 and focused on the grasses in the front. The objective is to use an aperture that gives us an impression of our subject while not blurring it completely. I used aperture bracketing to find the perfect balance of blur and form. Bracketing is capturing a range of images at slightly different settings in order to ensure that you have the highest selection to choose from in post-processing. With digital, this is great as additional images cost nothing. Most bracketing is done with exposure, however, I find myself bracketing aperture quite often in these types of cases. This technique can be attempted with the subject behind or in front of another object. Experiment with different positioning and apertures in order to find an effective combination.
To recap:
Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 70-200 f/4l @ 109mm, f/6.3, 1/13 second
As I mentioned in the post “The Dew Drops of Summer“, my brother-in-law invited my father-in-law and me to his cabin near Cedar Rapids, Nebraska where I had the opportunity to photograph a restored 1951 Ford tractor. This week, I am presenting a 5-part photographic series of tractor images. Each day I am going to have a new tractor image and am going discuss what photographic techniques I utilized to achieve the effects in the image.
A Little Bit About the Tractor Session
I spent quite a bit of time photographing this tractor. I had asked my brother-in-law to park the tractor in some grass to which he replied “You want to park a fully restored tractor as though it had sat for years?!”. Well, yeah! I had visualized this image of the tractor in a field with some nice prairie grass. I began in the late afternoon sun and as it grew darker I asked my brother-in-law to switch on the headlights. He then suggested capturing some images of the tractor through the grass as though it was coming toward me. A marvelous idea! By trying different apertures I was able to experiment with the settings which would keep the grass in the extreme foreground out of focus, but still recognizable. I found that f/8 was the most effective at producing this result.
A Little Bit About My Camera Settings
Whenever I shoot images, I solely shoot in RAW format. There are many reasons for this, but the most basic is that I have full control over the processing of the image. When an image is created as a JPEG the camera assumes it knows what’s best and creates the image for you. Well, I’m just stubborn and I certainly don’t think the camera knows whats best for me! In each of the images of the series I used the RAW converter in Adobe Photoshop to process the photographs.
Technical Details:
Canon 5d Mark II, 70-200 f/4l @ 104mm, f/8, .6 second
For some reason this guy allowed me to get close and take a few shots. I focused on the eye that was reflecting the blue sky behind me. Backyard nature at its friendliest, but I am sure the neighbors don’t like him eating their flowers!
Technical Details:
Canon 50d, 300 f/4l + 1.4 tc, f/6.3, 1/100 sec.
Omaha, Nebraska